


Tightrope

by heydoeydoey



Series: Everything 'verse [14]
Category: Glee
Genre: Homophobic Language, M/M, Slushies, because McKinley High sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-28
Updated: 2011-05-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22791346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heydoeydoey/pseuds/heydoeydoey
Summary: Puck is in this for the long haul, which means handling the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff.
Relationships: Kurt Hummel/Noah Puckerman
Series: Everything 'verse [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638469
Kudos: 19





	Tightrope

Summer disappears too quickly, as far as Puck’s concerned, and he wakes up reluctantly on the first day of school. On the bright side, it’s probably his _last_ first day of school, unless he suffers some sort of head injury and decides to apply to college. Which even if he did, he probably couldn’t get in. His grades are okay now, thanks to Artie, but there are still two years of almost-failing grades dragging his GPA down.

He pushes the thought aside and kicks free of his covers, stumbling out of bed. He’s a little wary about starting school again sans ‘hawk, but he figures people are going to be more focused on his tongue in Kurt’s mouth rather than his missing mohawk.

When he gets to school, he parks next to Kurt’s Nav. Finn and Kurt are both leaning against the car, although Finn starts walking towards Sam and Mercedes once Puck kills the engine.  
  
“Hi.” Kurt breathes, and Puck can’t help noticing he’s dressed pretty tamely.  
  
“Hi,” Puck smiles. They haven’t really talked about what happens today, so he’s not surprised when he reaches for Kurt and his boyfriend shies away.  
  
“Are you sure about this, Noah?” Kurt asks, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder and frowning slightly. “It’s not something you can take back.”  
  
“It’s not something I’ll ever be interested in taking back, babe.” Puck says and his slides his arm around Kurt’s waist, slipping his hand into the back pocket of Kurt’s skinny jeans.  
  
Kurt opens his mouth like he wants to say more, and Puck can’t help leaning in for a kiss, covering Kurt’s protests with his mouth and chasing them away with his tongue. When he pulls away, he resists the urge to look around and see if anyone was watching. He just wants to know what they’re going to be dealing with today, but he knows Kurt will take it for regret, so he kisses Kurt’s nose before starting to tug him in the direction of the school.  
  
They get a few curious glances as they cross the parking lot, but for the most part people look more surprised than anything. Puck’s not dumb enough to think the surprise will just fade to indifference. He knows the shit will hit the fan sooner or later, and if it were anyone else, he’d probably say _fuck it_ and chicken out. But it’s Kurt, and Puck is in this for the long haul, which means handling the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff.

They make it to Kurt’s locker unscathed, and Puck should go to his own locker, but he can’t help staying where he is, leaning against the lockers and watching while Kurt unpacks all his new folders and binders and notebooks into his locker.  
  
“Noah,” Kurt sighs. “Stop hovering. I’ll be fine.”  
  
From the way Kurt’s words tumble out of his mouth so quickly, Puck can tell he’s nervous. But he doesn’t want Puck to _know_ he’s nervous, obviously.

“All right. I’ll see you at lunch?”  
  
Kurt nods. They compared schedules last week and theirs don’t match up at all, since Kurt’s doing a bunch of AP classes and most of Puck’s classes are just normal ones (except for AP statistics, because once Artie helped him out with geometry, he pretty much flew through trig and now Ms. Pillsbury thinks he’s some kind of math genius and stuck him in AP stats with the kids who actually care about school).

For the most part, people are too distracted by the first-day-of-school chaos to say anything to Puck about the fact that he likes dicks instead of chicks now. He’s pretty sure the same can’t be said for Kurt, though, because when he gets to the glee table during lunch, Kurt’s wearing a different shirt than the one he had on this morning. Puck only remembers because the new shirt is a v-neck and he can see the edge of the hickey he left on Kurt’s collarbone yesterday.

“Who slushied you?” Puck demands.  
  
“Noah, it’s not worth it.” Kurt sighs. “I was getting slushied long before I started infecting you with my gayness.”  
  
Puck thinks Kurt was aiming for sarcastic, but instead his voice comes out tight and bitter, and that just is _not_ cool with Puck.  
  
“Screw that.” Puck growls, and before he’s totally has a plan, he starts heading for the slushy machine, grabbing a chair as he goes. Kurt figures out what he’s going to do before Puck can actually throw the chair, though, and he grabs Puck’s arm, digging his heels in and pulling him back towards the glee table.  
  
“Noah, _no_. Figgins will send you right back to juvie.”  
  
“Well, then tell me who slushied you and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”  
  
Kurt sighs and suddenly looks so tired that Puck knows he’ll agree to whatever Kurt asks. “Can you just drop it, please?”  
  
Puck nods and sits down next to Kurt, draping his arm across Kurt’s shoulders possessively. He can feel the stares on them, can feel the way they’re steadily shifting from curious to hostile.

Things come to a head on his way to glee club at the end of the day. He stops to take a piss and just as he’s about to leave the bathroom, Kevin Andrews and Joe Klein barge in, talking loudly. They shut up the second they see him and both of them cross their arms over their chests.

“Oh, look, it’s Puckerman the faggot.” Kevin smirks.  
  
He’s a defensive end on the football team, and up until now, Puck thought he was a pretty cool dude. “Real original, Andrews.”  
  
“Where’s your boyfriend?” Joe sneers, “Hanging out with the rest of the queers in glee club?”  
  
“Leave Kurt out of this.” Puck snaps. This isn’t something he’s used to, being the bullied instead of the bully. Even when he was dating Lauren, people knew better than to mess with him.  
  
“Ooh, touchy.” Joe grins maliciously. “Guess we found Puckerman’s weak spot.”  
  
“I’m not fucking kidding, Klein.” Puck snarls. “Anybody that messes with Kurt has to answer to me. Got it?”  
  
Finn walks into the bathroom then, and Puck's not sure what would have happened if he didn't. “Dude, c’mon. We’re gonna be late for glee.”  
  
Kevin smirked. “Yeah, run along to glee club, homos.”

Finn pretty much drags Puck out of the bathroom before he can break either Andrews or Klein’s faces like he wants to.  
  
When he walks into the choir room after Finn, Kurt is sitting in the back row looking worried. Puck takes the empty seat next to him and slings his arm across Kurt’s shoulders. Surprisingly, there are a few new people sitting in the chairs and Mr. Schue is giving them the big ‘Welcome to New Directions’ speech.

Kurt turns towards Puck and asks quietly, “You okay?”  
  
“Yeah.” Puck says, tightening his arm around Kurt’s shoulders.  
  
And he is okay, mostly. He just needs to come up with a plan, because there’s no way he’s letting anybody fuck with Kurt. Burt might get it in his head to send Kurt back to Dalton, and that means uniformed, slouching, zombie Kurt and stupid Blaine and Puck walking around with a big gaping hole in his chest while Kurt’s gone.  
  
Kurt doesn’t look totally convinced, and Puck doesn’t blame him. He didn’t quite realise the tightrope Kurt has been walking on, being out at McKinley, and now Puck is up there with him too. Now that he knows what they’re up against, he can’t help the anxiety that settles in his gut. But they’re going be okay. Puck thinks maybe if he tells himself that enough, it might end up being true.  



End file.
